Voice-over-Internet-Protocol telephones (sometimes referred to as Voice-over-IP or VoIP phones) provide long-distance voice communications at much lower cost than traditional telephones (sometimes referred to as Plain Old Telephone Service or POTS). Moreover, VoIP phones offer the possibility of conveniently integrating the computer and telephone desktop environment of employees, with the potential to boost employee productivity. Accordingly, increasing numbers of business enterprises are integrating their data and telephone systems by migrating to VoIP phones.
While this migration offers business enterprises substantial savings, increased employee productivity, and convenience, the potential exists for disruptions to the data network. Such disruptions could be the product of computer viruses, power failures, server failures, or temporary overload of network bandwidth.
To safeguard against such disruptions, many enterprises deploy POTS as well as VoIP phones in various locations. However, one drawback of having different types of phones in an enterprise is that users can be confused by, or fail to appreciate, the different user interfaces presented by such different phone types in a single business environment. Another drawback is the cost impact of purchasing two sets of phone devices.